It took me a moment to halt my steps, my momentum and grip on Itanya’s hand dragging her along the rocky pathway. She cried out again as rocks and splinters embedded themselves in her exposed skin.
I threw myself on the ground just as thezapof lightning cut through the air where my head was.
“Crawl to me, Itanya,” I commanded, shouting above the cacophony of battle. The oak tree still crackled and burned yards behind us, the refugees’ screams and cries mixed with the snapping of twigs as they ran through the forest. Above it all, the snarls and hoots of Solace’s sycophants echoed through the night, drawing ever closer.
Itanya scrambled over the ground, whimpering as a rock bit into her palm.Reaching out, I grabbed her forearms and hauled her onto my lap as I sat against a felled tree, trying to catch my breath.
I panted, hands shaking, as I grasped the hem of Itanya’s dress and pulled, popping seams and renting fabric as I tore it up to her mid-thigh before doing the same to my dress.
“There,” I said, softly brushing the debris from her skin. “Good as new.”
“I want my mommy, Gamma. I want Daddy and Papa and Da,” she whispered, voice breaking as she longed for her parents. I’d been closest to her when the attacks started; her parents called away to usher their people out of Imena like cattle.
“I know, sweetheart, I know,” I cooed, cuddling her against my chest for a moment. “But we’ll see them at the caves. I promise, little one.”
She nodded into my chest, her little fists tightening in the satin of my dress as her tears wet my exposed skin.
“Now, we must hurry again. We must run,” I said, gently prying her from me. Itanya wiped her eyes with the back of a dirty hand; a few of her braids were stuck with leaves and twigs, while others had been pulled partially free.
The sounds of thundering steps and crashing magic grew closer, and I sprang to my feet, eyes wild.
“Come, child! We must go!” I started running again, pulling a scrambling Itanya behind me as we worked to catch up to the rest of the fleeing rebels.
Almost there. We’re almost there.
I hadn’t allowed myself to hope, to think of the finish line as we ran, but when we exploded from the tree line with the outline of the caves clearly in sight, my traitorous heart thumped in excitement.
“We’re almost there, Itanya,” I breathed, yanking the girl along again as her much smaller strides fought to keep up with mine.
“Gamma, I’m tired. I-I can’t—” she panted, voice bordering on hysterical as she worked to breathe and run.
I stopped halfway across the open moonlit plain, Talamh’s and Torin’s voices ringing through the night, urging us onward.
“Here, I’ll—” I stopped only briefly. Just enough to reach for the tired child and swing her into my arms with assurances that I’d carry her to safety.
But that one small second where I released her small hand, theonemoment I relinquished my hold on the terrified child, was enough time for a vine to snake from the woods and curl around Itanya’s waist.
It happened all too fast, yet in slow motion. My arms reached down to Itanya as her little hands reached out to me. Fear and surprise widened her eyes as the brown vine snapped around her waist. My own eyes widened in recognition andhorror as the Earth Mage the vine belonged to tugged, pulling Itanya to the ground and back toward the woods at a pace I could not follow.
“ITANYA!” I screamed, bent in half with panic and grief.
“GAMMA!” Her terrified shriek echoed through the night, rebounding off the caves to my back. Itanya’s call ended with a sharp cry of pain as she was unceremoniously dragged through the tree line, into the hands of the enemy.
I nearly sank to my knees then, the horror of what happened hitting me firmly in the gut. Tears spilled down my cheeks as the memories of Itanya’s capture mixed with those of Faylinn’s.
No. No. I’ve failed again.
“BONDSMITH!” Torin roared as a jet of fire, unlike any I’d seen before, shot from the mouth of the cave to incinerate a dozen vines as they shot from the tree line straight toward me.
“Let them take me,” I mumbled, legs shaky as I stood swaying from exhaustion and grief, eyes fixed on the spot I’d last seen Itanya.
The girl who called me Gamma.
“Bondsmith, you need to seal the cave. NOW!” Talamh’s voice and magic joined the fight as Mages stepped from the cover of the trees into the open plain, eyes dark and hungry, sinister smiles plastered on their faces.
“Let them take me,” I repeated, opening my arms wide as if to welcome my sister’s killing blow. After everything I’d done, I deserved nothing less.
The ground beneath my feet shook and rumbled before groaning as it split in two, a deep chasm forming between me and the rapidly encroaching Mages. It grew wider, forcing me to my ass as I fell from the shaking.
